Saturday, December 27, 2014

Ukraine’s Government Is Starving Residents of the Breakaway Region

Amnesty International has found
that “the already desperate situation in eastern Ukraine is being made
even worse by” so-called ‘volunteer’ or mercenary forces for the
Ukrainian Government, which are blocking the supply of food to residents
in that region, and trying to starve them to death.

Thus, “The region is facing a humanitarian disaster with many already
at risk of starvation,” said Denis Krivosheev, acting Director of
Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International, on Wed., December
24th.

Amnesty International reports that, “Over half of the population in these areas are now entirely dependent on food aid.”

The AI report quotes one commander of these mercenary forces as
giving his reason for blocking the humanitarian supplies, as being:
“We’re at war with them and we’re spilling our blood, but in the same
time we’re feeding them”; so, they refuse to allow the aid convoys
through.

Germany’s Nazi forces during World War II gave the same explanation
for why they treated the entire population in their conquered regions as
being the enemy: they were the enemy, to be exploited and not
served; they were thus to be cleared out, or else slaughtered, in order
to provide “lebensraum” for the conquering people (‘Aryans’), who would
be moving in and taking over the natural and other resources of the
region, to be used by the Nazi state. (In the present instance, gas is
one of the main resources in the rebelling region, which is the site of
the vast Yuzivska gas field, and Obama’s people want it; and one of the
Obama team’s appointed leaders there, the billionaire Ihor Kolomoysky, hired Joe Biden’s son and a friend of John Kerry for the board of his gas-exploration company.)

Amnesty International cannot afford to say this. According to sourcewatch (before they took their site down)
Amnesty International is largely funded by Western aristocrats, and the
famous Professor Francis H. Boyle has said, “Amnesty International is
primarily motivated not by human rights but by publicity. Second comes
money. Third comes getting more members. Fourth, internal turf battles.
And then finally, human rights.” So: they’re heavily dependent upon
Western, and especially upon American, aristocrats, including such
people as George Soros and his Open Society Foundation, and his
International Renaissance Fund (which donated heavily to promoting the coup). In other words: AI needs to watch out.

The reality in Donbas is this blockade has been in place for
almost 6 months now. The bank runs happened in the late spring through
the mid summer. I was there as thousands of people stood in line
literally for days in front of bank ATMs.

During this time a surcharge was added to every deposit in
Donbass banks and the funds went to buy the bullets used to kill people
here. When Kiev lost ground in the east mid summer they closed the banks
altogether. The banks closed without warning all deposits were stolen
and used to buy more bullets.

How is it possible to have a bank run in November when banks haven’t been open for 4 months?

The vulnerable, the dying, and the dead

Pensions and benefits to the elderly and disabled were also cut
off in mid summer. State and oligarch owned businesses functioning and
reaping profits stopped paying salaries. By early July retirees across
the countryside were surviving on leftovers from the last harvest,
unripened fruit, and help from their neighbors.

In August I started hearing about the starvation among the most
vulnerable people which were the shut-ins. People that were bed ridden
or because of disabilities could no longer leave their apartments died
of starvation and thirst. Where were their neighbors?

In early summer the Ukrainian army started targeting apartment
buildings and homes. Throughout the summer this never let up. At first
Kiev denied it but later it didn’t matter anymore in the news. Kiev
suspended the human rights of people in Southeast early in the spring.

The shelling of civilian homes had the effect Kiev was hoping
for. It created a flood of terrified refugees that simply ran and almost
overwhelmed the capacity to take care of them in Belarus and Russia.

I have watched people come to this decision. They don’t talk
about it out of fear. They quietly slip away. The neighbors of the
shut-ins thought someone else was staying and would look after them. In a
lot of cases no one could. No one talked to anyone else, they ran. …

The social net that Poroshenko cynically cut off in November has
not existed since late spring. Kiev destroyed it with shells not
democracy.

Medications

Medications for chronic life threatening illnesses such as
diabetes, heart disease, and basic antibiotics became in short supply in
late spring. Early on medication was transported by clearly marked
vehicles with red cross insignia or ambulances. These became the favored
targets of mercenaries and para military forces like Donbass battalion
[from the Ukrainian Government]. In every major city hospitals have been
prime targets the entire time.

Until then most medications were distributed through warehouses
in Kiev. As early as June publications such as the Telegraph reported on
the humanitarian efforts which was caused by Kiev’s humanitarian
blockade.

The reality since summer is people dying because the medications
they needed were kept out of their reach. No matter how how much effort
is put into the humanitarian effort the population of over 7 million
people are in a war zone that is constantly bombarded with rockets and
shells.

Creating Famine Conditions

Beginning in the late spring the Ukrainian army set landmines
across the grain fields needed to support the area for human and
livestock consumption. The landmines set in grain fields aren’t in
contested areas. They are not marked and the locals weren’t told to stay
away by the Ukrainian army.

These are the fields where farmers make their living and produce
the grain needed for bread. One of my neighbors hit a mine trying to
harvest his wheat. It destroyed his tractor and he was lucky to be
thrown clear. He woke to see his tractor burning. In early summer
another neighbor on his tractor was used for sniper practice.

The Ukrainian army burnt grain and corn fields that were under
their control. This continued throughout most of the summer as noted
across many articles.

The scorched earth policy was geared at creating the current
situation which will soon be mass starvation and the sicknesses
associated with it. Tens of thousands of acres could not be harvested.

To make the point a few short weeks ago Kiev’s appointed Governor
in the occupied Lugansk region stated bluntly that Kiev’s humanitarian
blockade of Lugansk and Donetsk was geared to reproduce the effects of
the Soviet Union’s 1932-33 famine in which millions across central and
southeast Ukraine perished from starvation and sickness.

Camps

When the refugee problem started getting international attention
in mid-summer president Poroshenko made a big deal about how Donbass
refugees would be welcomed by the Ukrainians and how much money was set
aside for them. It is Kiev of course and the money was stolen like the
donations for the families of Kiev’s heavenly hundred.

The refugees were set up in summer camps without utilities and
for the most part no humanitarian aid. What humanitarian aid isn’t
stolen goes to the soldiers. The men that ran from the war found
themselves conscripted and sent back. The families sent to the summer
camps still sit there in December with no heat. Many will perish from
exposure.

Refugees that thought they were fortunate enough to make it to
Kiev or other nationalist cities are denied jobs and benefits because
they are from Donbass. They ran from the referendum, thought they were
good Ukrainians, and yet are still Moskal [the derogatory term for Russians].
Kiev’s new laws take the children from their mothers so they can be
raised in orphanages and become good Ukrainian nationalists.

Quotes

"There is beauty in truth, even if it's painful. Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don't teach us anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything. Nor do they develop one's character, one's mind, one's heart or one's soul." Jose Harris

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